02/19/2002 "Mandela criticises government's record on fighting Aids pandemic "

Mandela criticises government's record on fighting Aids pandemic
- Sunday Times

Nelson Mandela has criticised South Africa's government's response to the Aids crisis.

He says in a Sunday newspaper interview the debates should end and action should be taken

An estimated 4.7 million South Africans -11 percent of the population - are infected with HIV, the highest number of infections in any country.

"This is a war. It has killed more people than has been the case in all previous wars and in all previous natural disasters," Mandela was quoted as telling the Sunday Times of Johannesburg. "We must not continue to be debating, to be arguing, when people are dying."

The government has come under intense criticism for its refusal to establish a widescale program to give pregnant infected women a drug that could cut in half the number of babies born with the virus.

President Thabo Mbeki has also courted controversy by questioning the link between HIV and Aids and by downplaying statistics showing Aids is the country's leading cause of death.

Mandela said he planned to talk to senior leaders of the ruling African National Congress to discuss the government response to the pandemic, and he was confident those leaders would be able to resolve the issue.

In the past, Mandela has pointedly resisted criticizing his successor publicly.

However, the interview is the second time this month he has taken issue with the government's fight against Aids.

In a February 7 speech, he said that preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV must be central to any government Aids prevention program, and said the government debates over Aids were detracting from the more important fight against the disease.